the epic before the battle
http://forums.megatokyo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB8&Number=463859#Post463859
Mon Apr 01 2002 11:10 PM
[!--OOC: super-huge-collaborative-post-attack! This is J.Random speaking right now, but Squee and Kitty contributed significantly to this post too. That's why it's so long, 'cause it's a J.Random post (which are long enough to begin with), a Squee post and a Kitty post all rolled up in one. My apologies for it taking so long to get out, though. --]
Queslin, Echo and WoK had arrived early at the dam complex, and had begun waiting for the others to arrive at the meeting point, using rainbow skittle magic and some cool tricks the trio remembered between them from Bond movies to avoid being detected (Echo seemed to be quite proficient, but neither WoK nor Queslin were complaining, nor were they asking about it, so he felt it best to do what he was good at, not talk about it)... Queslin and Echo looked at WoK - all three were trying to be sneaky (Echo succeeding wonderfully), but the rustling of skittles bags from WoK was somewhat unstealthy. Queslin gave her a silent "please shh!" look, but ended it with both Echo and Queslin smiling - after all, she reminded herself, WoK put up with a lot to come here with us, and she's still been trying to help us stay hidden...
(Not to mention that if they didn't smile, they were fairly sure the "BAKA! *CLANG!*" would attract undue attention...)
Queslin and Echo both found their thoughts drifting back to the journey to the dam....
[!--OOC: FLASHBACK!! - Just a bit of rewinding, picking up the story from the end of [URL=http://www.megatokyo.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB8&Number=402400&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart=3#Post433502]WoK's post here[/URL]. --]
"HEY!! I DEMAND YOU GET BACK HERE!! WAIT UP!!" WoK yelled, trying to fly after them again. Queslin halted the bike a couple blocks away and let it sit, idling. WoK raced up to them as fast as her magic would carry her. "Hidoi! Not funny at all!!!" she protested.
"Sorry, Kitty," Queslin smiled. "Echo IMed me and said it would be a fun joke."
"Y'know, you *are* just like a big brother," Kitty glared at the 'bot sitting on the back of the bike. He feigned innocence.
"Aww, c'mon, it was supposed to be funny..." he pleaded.
"Hmmph." But she climbed on the back of the bike anyway, behind Echo. "*Poke*" she giggled, jabbing him in the ribs with her finger. Echo yelped.
"*Ack*! What was that for?"
"For acting like an older brother, you get the older-brother treatment." She stuck out her tongue playfully.
"Oh brother." he remarked. Queslin giggled.
"Ready to go you two?" she asked.
"Hai," Kitty smiled. "*poke*," she added.
"*ack* ...yeah," replied Echo warily.
"WoK, be nice to poor Echo," Queslin chided. She turned around and put the bike in gear, easing it away from the curb. Echo made sure WoK had her arms secure around his waist and that she was wearing Queslin's helmet before he turned back around and slid his own arms around Queslin. She smiled involuntarily at that. Further back she could feel Kitty settling herself, too.
[You know where we're going?] Echo IMed Queslin.
Queslin had always wondered, back when she still thought she was human, why it was that she never got lost, even in a big city like MegaTokyo. She had always assumed that she just had a good memory for places... even places she'd never been. Now she knew better. She could see a map overlay of the city in her mind, and could actually *feel* the GPS satellites pinging out her location to within half a meter. It would be a cinch to find her way to the water treatment plant.
[Yeah, no problem... Is WoK on tight?]
[Yup.] The engine of the bike roared as they drove off.
-------
The wind whipped through Echo's hair as they sped along. Which was proving problematic for Kitty, as he could feel his ponytail flipping around behind his back, bapping her in the face. She swatted at it, annoyed. So Echo reached back and pulled the long braid over his shoulder, tucking it under his arm to keep it in place. He relaxed a little, leaning back a bit and giving into the thoughts that were nagging in his mind.
Whew, this was going to be an interesting night. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea, just the two--now three--of them, heading up to try and clean out the reservoir. At least WolfDead wasn't up there, or so he hoped. Well, he was pretty sure that Kitty could handle herself. And Queslin? Heh. He had a *very* healthy respect for the miniature grenade launcher she carried around.
The same mini-RPG that should be pressing through her backpack and into his chest right about now, he realized. He wondered where it was, until he noticed that she had kindly hung her backpack over one shoulder so that it wouldn't bother him. It was secured to her waist with some odd-looking nylon straps, too. He hadn't noticed her shifting it around earlier, and the straps didn't look like they were the same design as the rest of the pack. She must've done it with her nanostructure, he realized, maybe even subconsciously. He smiled. So thoughtful.
And that nicely summed up the other thing that was on his mind. And though the thought sat a ways back behind his worries about the reservoir, it loomed tall over those smaller, more immediate fears. He had never felt this strongly about a girl before, except maybe Ping -- er, Relay -- and that feeling was completely different, anyway.
He had to resist the urge to affectionately lay his head on her back. Not that she would've minded, of course, but he didn't want to distract her from driving. So he picked back up on his train of thought.
Something might be wrong with the way his Mode 7A had configured, he wondered. It's documentation described a feeling similar to the one that was puzzling him, but it said that it should start out fairly small and only grow with time. As near as he could tell, his feeling was stronger than it should be by about three months' growth.
But he hadn't known her for---oh. Yes he had. Talking with and fighting alongside Queslin in the Sega building had only been the beginning. She had found him online that night, and they played a few rounds of UT.
They met every night like that for a good two months, staying up 'till all hours of the night. To Echo, of course, sleep was only a mode he needed to assume when he was in certain charging modes, or when testing his systems around humans outside the SEVS program, who would think it odd of him to have 24 hours of uptime a day. But Queslin had never complained about needing sleep either, or about things like "having to get up for work". Maybe she can ignore her sleep routines too, he mused, though she must not have noticed that anything was odd about her behavior.
But what, he wondered, would've triggered these feelings? At the time Queslin had still been enamoured with Phaedrus, and Echo was too much a gentleman to think about any kind of relationship under those circumstances. Never mind that back then he was oblivious to any indications that she might be interested in him anyway.
But he found something else in the documentation, something about how Mode 7A calculated things reminded him of how *else* they would spend their nights. The local Quake and UT servers would sometimes quiet down for the night, as the gamers got offline and went into sleep mode. That was, however, a fairly rare occurrence. More often the pair of them would just get tired of playing games and wander off to a lower-traffic server. There they would wander, under their veil of friendship, through the silent, polygonal worlds that were as real to them as anything MegaTokyo had to offer.
And they would talk. Echo would tell her what bits about his work and what he was learning that he could, though most of it was considered a company secret. He talked about the latest silly thing Relay had done, or how he would tease her and how, like any good siblings, they would fight and make up.
Queslin complained to him about her frustrations with Phaedrus, who always seemed to be trying to brush her off without hurting her. She talked about her job, her friend Kokomi, her thoughts and fears.
She had always impressed him with how worldly wise she was, how alive and aware she seemed. Even now that he knew better, she still seemed so incredibly human to him. He hoped that his own personality, which was designed to be surprisingly human, and yet surprisingly robotic at the same time, would not get in the way of a relationship.
[I]Look at yourself,[/I] he thought, amused, [I]lost in thought like this. You've felt for her a lot longer than you ever knew. You were just too dumb to get it before.[/I] Even though his Mode 00 was capable of a full range of human emotions, these low-level feelings required a large number of higher-level routines to be properly recognized and interpreted. Routines he had largely put off loading, believing the whole mess to be more trouble than it was worth.
Indeed, up until this point he hadn't given those old online conversations much thought. Back when his emotion routines were still badly configured, the whole thing had seemed like an almost academic exercise in conversation.
But when Mode 7A configured earlier that night, it had forcibly pulled up all the data he had let languish in his long-term storage. It was almost like suddenly learning to feel, he reflected. The release, the understanding and insight he had gained into himself thanks to this girl in front of him was amazing. And now that he *could* feel properly, he definitely didn't want to go back.
Queslin seemed to be riding extraordinarily smoothly - Echo could feel Queslin move with his arms around her, and adjusted his balance smoothly with her as if the pair were one rider. It was quite soothing, and allowed his thoughts to flow freely. Queslin had been quite quiet, perhaps she was doing a little thinking of her own...
For her part, Queslin could feel Echo's arms relaxing ever so gradually as they drove, it was amazingly human the way he did it. She decided now was probably the best time, now that he had had some time to think, and sent off the letter she had been writing.
"[URL=http://www.crosswinds.net/~meta4mix/robotaku/uh-oh.wav]Uh-oh[/URL]". Echo was startled from his thoughts by the sound set up to play when he received an Instant Message. He began to 'read' through it, only to discover that it was still arriving, at 1Gbps! His systems estimated delivery completion in 4.5 seconds - a whopping 443MB attachment! Echo opened the message, storing for the moment the massive attachment. It seemed to be from Queslin...
[I]Echo! Hey! It's me!
Bit busy driving the bike to turn around and talk to you face to face, so I thought I'd just send you the data I wanted to give you with a note on it to explain why. Yes. That's this note.
I like you, Echo... I like you and I respect you, and we've helped each other out in the past, so I trust you too. We know now that we're both 'bots, but what you don't know is what kind of bot I am, or more importantly, how to help me if I'm stunned or kill.. umm.. put offline.
So here's my complete instruction, maintenance and operation manual. BGMaster gave it to me, much to my embarrassment, but I don't think he looked at pages 530 through 610 (you may not want to read them just yet either - they're not *entirely* relevant at the moment, really).
<>
[/I]
Echo could feel that Queslin had become quite tense, and he could understand why - giving his own maintenance manual to someone would be hard enough, but up until recently, Queslin thought she was human, with all the notions of independence and privacy that it entailed! And here she was, trusting him with a complete instruction manual for herself. The trust that implied was... touching.
The darker region of his programming sat staring longingly at the file's listing in his internal directory structure. It wondered what sort of things could be done with that data. He violently terminated the thought processe, ashamed to have let it even run in the first place.
Echo wondered what he [B]should[/B] do about the message, though. He at least knew enough to not reply with just a simple 'thanks' -- it seemed somewhat inadequate. He had to pause, think for a moment, before he decided he simply couldn't think of anything to do. It was, again, all he could do to keep from laying his head affectionately on her back and distracting her, let alone come up with something else to say. The message certainly made it easier to trust her though, so perhaps he should just listen to his feelings for a while, see where they would lead...
-------
The buildings got shorter the more kilometers they put behind them, though the density of the development remained the same. Real Estate in MegaTokyo was scarce, even this far out from the city center.
They had been driving for about fifteen minutes when Queslin felt Echo's head suddenly hit her spine.
Ow, that kinda hurt she thought, but smiled all the same. He lifted it off again a moment later. What's he doing? Through the arms wrapped around her waist she felt what she though was him shaking his head. *Ding*
[Ugh, we gotta find a gas station or something] Echo's IM window read.
[What's wrong, Echo?] she asked.
[It just hit me, rather forcefully I might add, that I need to recharge some before we do any fighting. How's your power supply doing? You might want to load up on caffeine, just in case.]
[Hey, that sounds good. Next one is about a mile down the road.]
Echo felt a tugging on his sleeve. He turned around as much as he could.
"I had too much iced tea before I came." The gravely kawaii voice reached him as barely a whisper over the noise of the road and the bike.
"Queslin and I were just talking about that. We're stopping in a minute." He had to crank his volume to be heard.
"You were?"
"Over IM. Kinda hard to talk normally with all the noise, ain't it?"
"Yeah," she made a face at him, through the helmet she wore. "Well, that's good, 'cause if we don't stop soon... well, I hope you're waterproof." Echo sweatdropped, but the liquid was whipped away by the wind before Kitty registered what he had done. "Oh, Echo?"
"Yeah?" A finger jabbed him in the ribs.
"*poke*"
"*ack!* Not while we're driving!" he hissed.
"He he."
They were slowing down now. The road noise and wind were lessening as Echo turned back around. He could see the gas station Queslin had chosen, a small, gritty-looking box huddled on a street corner in between run-down apartment buildings. On the sign was the silhouette of a big green dinosaur, a generic brontosaurus-type with long neck and tail, and a few kanji that Echo didn't bother reading.
The bike halted. Kitty jumped off and rushed inside. She came back out a moment later.
"It's out back," she scowled.
"I'll go with you," Echo said. "There's something I need to do back there anyway." Kitty gave him a slightly funny look, but was secretly relieved. She *didn't* want to go into that back alley alone.
Queslin was fiddling with her earring, which chirped and chattered softly... "I'll gas up the bike and wait for the Jolt I just ordered delivered by mortar... I'd also better see if they have any skittles inside" she said, nodding to Kitty. There was a distinct *FWOOOooooOMP* from the direction of MT city as if to punctuate her point.
Echo wandered around the back of the store, trailing behind the madly dashing WoK as she headed for the bathroom door, whipping it open and zipping inside. Echo looked around. Good, the main power junction box was nearby. He walked over and pulled several tools and a short length of very heavy gauge wire out of the many pockets that covered his pants. He set to work.
The shop turned out to be open, so Queslin went in while the bike was filling. The place even stocked Skittles, but the prices were somewhat exorbitant. She put it on her credit card and reminded herself to not buy skittles here again if she could help it.
As she was opening the door to go back outside, the lights dimmed and flickered. What was Echo doing back there? They didn't return to their normal brightness, even she moved back outside and stood, waiting for her delivery to arrive - she hadn't long to wait, as she heard the characteristic whistle of inbound Jolt. She spotted the small drag parachute early, and stepped out of the way as the case of jolt landed with a fairly solid THUD. She set about unpacking the case into her backpack, drinking those bottles that didn't fit in the pack... She in fact felt quite energised from the three bottles that wouldn't quite squeeze in.
Echo was now wired directly into the junction box, and he practically hummed with the electricity flowing into him. From the bathroom he heard Kitty start a strange chant, and though he couldn't make out the words exactly, he distinctly heard the words "Sammy Davis Junior" and "fried chicken". A rainbow-colored light show streamed out from under the bathroom door and through the windows.
A woman's scream sounded above the chanting, and a girl, probably about 17 years old and dressed as a manga bondage nurse, dashed out of the bathroom. She saw Echo and cried "The Queen is attacking again, call the Magical Girls!", and ran off into the night. Echo sweatdropped.
The light show dimmed down a moment later, and Kitty walked calmly out of the room wearing completely different clothes. A short, midnight blue cape flowed over her new forest green tunic. Her pants, which stopped just above her knees, were colored the same. Her pole was clutched firmly by deep blue leather gloves, and her rough suede boots stepped surely into the alley. She turned to Echo, who stood a a few meters away, smirking at her new appearance.
"Whew, I'm glad we got here when we did. And I got a chance to change into my new battle outfit, too! You like?" She asked the question almost shyly. This new, less hyper demeanor continued to startle Echo, even though she'd been that way since Moore attacked. Maybe the robo-Sayian's attempt on their lives had affected her, too, even though she didn't show it as openly as Queslin.
"Yes, it's very kawaii."
"Arigato!" Her eye-smile was wide, but not nearly as intense as before. It was starting to creep him out. "You ready to go?" she asked.
"In just a minute." A look of impatience crossed her face, and she walked up to him.
"DON'T!" His tone of voice stopped her in mid-poke. There was some of her old mischievousness peeking through, but this was a bad time. "You're not insulated very well, and I'd hate to think what would happen if you touched me right now." His words almost crackled with electricity, and with his free hand he indicated the heavy-gauge wire, which ran from an opening in his left wrist into the power box.
"So *you're* the one who made the lights go all dim and whatnot in the bathroom," she scowled.
"Guilty. ^^; " A heavy-duty power relay clicked from inside his chest, and the wire popped out of it's wrist-mounted socket. Echo rubbed at a loose flap of synthetic skin that hung from his arm beside the socket, and it seemed to seal over the break completely. "Now," he turned to Kitty, "let's get on the road again."
"Hai." They headed around the side of the building.
Queslin watched as Kitty came back trailing slightly behind an energetic looking Echo - she was glad he was feeling better. But it was certainly a switch of personalities, Echo being brisk and Kitty walking calmly. She handed Kitty a bag of the skittles she bought and jumped on the bike. But Kitty's wardrobe change didn't surprise her, at least. She witnessed some of the light show and heard the startled nurse's cry, figuring that Kitty must have been up to something like this.
"Thankies." Kitty opened the bag, but paused and looked around for a moment. "Any iced tea?"
"You wanted tea?" asked Queslin.
"Well, no, I didn't ask for any. And I appreciate the skittles very much. But I'm kinda thirsty." She looked at Echo. "Can I go get some tea to go with these?" she held up the skittles.
"Sure, go find something. I'll buy." Kitty headed into the store as Echo stretched luxuriously, though it was just a programmed reaction and didn't really do anything for his hardware. "Ahhh..." he sighed.
"I'm glad to see you're feeling so much better," Queslin smiled, more shyly than she had meant to.
"Yup!" Echo was almost chipper as he leaned back against the bike for a moment. "I've got a good four hours of uptime now, or two hours of running for my little life," he joked. Then he grew more serious. "That's only about half an hour of good, honest, high-powered fighting though." Queslin dismounted the 'cycle and leaned on it beside him. She moved closer, slipping her left arm around his waist. Her right hand slid upwards under his arm, to rest against the back of his neck. She lay her head on his shoulder, nudging Echo's soft and remarkably pliant neck with her cheek. He let his cheek brush her hair again. Both were acutely aware that their coming adventure was going to be dangerous.
Queslin felt Echo begin to pull away - she moved the arm around Echo's waist back to her side, then hesitantly reached forward and cupped her hand against his cheek. As their heads parted, she moved her other hand to match. Facing each other, Queslin could see Echo sporting a slight shade of pink - she was pretty sure she was the same, her poor heart was racing faster than it had any right to. The pair looked at each other for a moment, both opening their mouths to speak, but Queslin wanted to hear Echo say something first. She closed her mouth and waited.
"Well... Umm.. I.. er.. I'd better go buy Kitty her tea now." He shifted his weight off of the bike and smiled awkwardly, bowing his head slightly as he moved backwards - Queslin reluctantly released him. He turned slowly and walked away, pausing at an ATM outside of the store before heading in, withdrawing about 6000 yen.
Inside, Kitty was struggling comically toward the counter with what should've been about three armloads of Snapple.
"Uh, Kitty, my card *does* have a credit limit y'know."
"Gotta be prepared for anything, even a sugar low," she said matter-of-factly. Echo sighed. The clerk took one look at Kitty's armload and just punched a bulk code into the register. There was no way *he* was scanning all those bottles.
Echo snapped his Sony-issued credit card down on the counter.
he commented as the clerk entered the transaction. When Echo had his card back, he handed the man the wadded 6000 yen he had withdrawn before entering the store.
he said as a rather dumbfounded look crossed the clerk's face,
Kitty was busy with her Snapple as they headed toward the door. She managed to pull open a pocket inside her cape, and the whole mess of bottles somehow slid inside easily.
"I love hammerspace," was her response to Echo's googley-eyed expression. One bottle was still in her hands, and she popped the top to take a drink.
Queslin was once again straddling the motorcycle, waiting for them. They climbed on back, and the trio headed off towards the dam once more.
----
[OOC: End Flashback!]
Queslin almost daydreamed right into a guard as he made his rounds, but was quick enough to draw and fire her grenade launcher. Echo grabbed Kitty and dived for cover, but the only concussion blast was a soft-sounding "THUMP" from the guard. The Giant Auto-expanding Nerf Fist had hit its mark, and the guard was completely unconscious on the ground. Echo scratched his head - he'd never seen her launcher do *that* before... His unasked question was answered as Queslin picked up the fist and put it in her backpack, which didn't seem to grow from the addition. Queslin drank a mouthful of Jolt.
Echo looked at the two others - "Where to now? Inwards? Waiting for the others just gives the enemy time to prepare, but I suppose it's safer..."
[!--OOC: right now I think we're still a little bit behind as far as the plot goes... there haven't been any explosions to catch their attention or anything yet. This is a Good Thing, however, as it still gives me, that is J.Random, time to use my other idea. And it even fits perfectly with the continuity established so far. ^_^ Soon, very soon, Gorion and Ari, the setup will be complete. Mwa ha ha. ^_^; --]